Currently, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is typically utilized for log-on security in transmitting user credentials, including, without limitation, PINs, passwords, one-time passwords, biometrics, physical tokens, smart card tokens, security tokens, and the like (referred to hereinafter collectively as “PIN” and/or “user credentials” and/or “authentication credentials”, and customer identification numbers (CINs), from a user's terminal to an authentication server via a network, such as the Internet. For example, in an existing art user credential flow process, a user enters his or her user credentials, such as a PIN, in the clear on a Web site login screen at the user's browser, and the PIN travels, for example, over SSL to the Web server and is momentarily in the clear in memory in the Web server. Thereafter, the PIN is forwarded to an application server over SSL, and the PIN is again momentarily in the clear in memory in the application server. Continuing with the example, the PIN is then encrypted inside a token at the application server and the encrypted token containing the PIN is sent via SSL to a banking application server, where the encrypted token containing the PIN is decrypted, at which time the PIN is once more momentarily in the clear in memory. Next, a PIN block is created and encrypted with a session key (KPE-y) of an authentication server using a hardware storage module (HSM) of the banking application server, and the host key-encrypted PIN block is sent to the authentication server, which performs a PIN verification.
While a relatively high level of log-on security is afforded by SSL in transmitting user credentials in such existing art systems, there is presently a concern, for example, among monetary authorities in at least some jurisdictions that there is a risk that an insider might attempt to place ‘sniffing’ software on a web server or an application server inside a data center and secretly recover the users' credentials, such as the users' PINs or CINs. Further, at least some monetary authorities have imposed requirements on businesses, such as financial institutions, that operate banking websites to encrypt users' credentials, such as PINs and CINs, which are used in logging on to the website in such a way that the users' credentials are never exposed in the clear until they arrive at the authentication server (also referred to herein as the “host server”) that validates the user's credentials. Thus, there is a current need for a method and system for encrypting the user's credentials at the user's browser in such a way that they never appear in the clear, either in transmission from the user's browser to the financial institution's system or in any of the intermediate servers or application servers through which the user's credentials pass in the financial institution's system, until they arrive at the authentication server that validates the user's credentials.